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in reply to Re: Re: Artificial Intelligence Programming in Perl
in thread Artificial Intelligence Programming in Perl

Everything that can be invented has been invented

The Charles Duell Rumour:

While that statement makes good fun of predictions that do not come to pass, it is none the less just a myth.

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Re(4): Artificial Intelligence Programming in Perl
by cjf (Parson) on Jul 01, 2002 at 14:34 UTC

    Hmm, well that's okay, I've got more where that came from:

    • Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. - Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895
    • I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. - Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
    • There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home. - Ken Olsen, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
    • The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. - Western Union internal memo, 1876
    • Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value. - Marshal Ferdinand Foch, French commander of Allied forces during the closing months of World War I, 1918
    • The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular? - David Sarnoff's associates, in response to his urgings for investment in radio in the 1920's
    • Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools. - New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work, 1921
    • Who the hell wants to hear actors talk? - Harry M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

    Strike them down and others will take their place! ;-)

      Me too!
      • Ether exists.
      • Phlogiston exists.
      • Maggots on rotting food are spontaneously generated.
      • The earth is flat.
      • It is impossible to write structured Perl.
      • Perl is only useful for text-processing.
      • ESP is possible.
      • Crop circles must be of extraterrestrial origin.
      • Perl is a write-once language.
      • The tooth fairy took your old tooth and left you some money.
      • Computers can do anything.
      • It is possible to trisect any angle using only compass and straightedge.
      • The Internet has created a New Economy which is not bound by the rules of the old economy.
      We happen to know (I hope) all of them are flat-out wrong. And each has been stated in the past as true. For some of them there is very little empirical evidence; for the rest, there is none.

      The only question is: into which category are you putting AI? That people have been wrong is no argument, either way. So why repeat the point that people have incorrectly claimed that possible things are impossible? People have also correctly claimed that impossible things are impossible!

      Don't forget:
      • "640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981